A thousand Tunisians have returned home from conflict zones in Syria, Iraq and Libya, between 2011 and October 2018, announced Tunisia’s National Counter-terrorism Commission President Mokhtar Ben Nasr.
He confirmed that about 10 percent of them were held in Tunisian prisons, after being found guilty of terrorist acts, or were wanted by the Tunisian judiciary and sentenced in absentia.
Ben Nasr said in a media statement that the Tunisian authorities dealt with the cases of the returnees from conflict zones in a "case by case" manner, and confirmed the release of some of them for not proving their involvement in terrorist acts or belonging to any terrorist group. He also noted that some of the returnees went to those countries to work, namely Libya.
Previously, various international and local human rights organizations pointed out that about 135 Tunisians were under house arrest after being found guilty of terrorist acts.
Official figures suggest that about 3,000 Tunisians had left the country to join the conflict zones, and many of these fighters died in hotbed zones while some fled to various regions.
Authorities fear terrorists returning from the hotbeds of tension, and had prepared a local strategy to rehabilitate and integrate them into Tunisian society.
The government’s strategy is to submit the returnees cases to the Tunisian judiciary to determine charges against them, develop programs within Tunisian prisons to prevent terrorists from spreading their ideas among the rest of the prisoners, provide care for former terrorists and prevent their potential threat from affecting Tunisian society.
Meanwhile, the Committee revealed the names of eight terrorists involved in the assassination of the leftist leader Chokri Belaid on February 6, 2013, and decided accordingly to freeze their bank accounts in the context of drying up financial resources of those terrorist organizations.
In November and December, the National Committee released names of 63 terrorists and Tunisian terrorist elements and organizations. It confirmed a decision to freeze their assets and bank accounts as part of the strategy to combat terrorist activities.
